May 17, 2011

New Zealand's farmers battle new raw pork import standards

The pig farmers of New Zealand are currently on an 11th-hour battle against the new Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's (MAF) import health standards for raw pork.

The standards allow for limited imports of fresh uncooked pork from countries that have the disease porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

Industry board New Zealand Pork went to the High Court in Wellington today to seek an interim order for a review of the standards. The board said it feared the standards could increase the risk of the disease entering New Zealand.

Pork from countries with PRRS must undergo treatment to deactivate the disease.

Biosecurity officials originally proposed rules last year that would allow imports of consumer-ready cuts of uncooked pork from Canada, Europe, Mexico and the US, but were advised by a review panel to look at 29 deficiencies, including their import risk assessment.

But last month MAF said it had issued updates to those four import health standards for pig meat, pig meat products and by-products which would effectively manage the risk of introducing PRRS to New Zealand.

It said imports of fresh uncooked pork would be restricted to cuts smaller than 3kg that had the lymph nodes removed.

MAF's deputy director-general for standards, Carol Barnao, said "the likelihood of the virus being introduced through the importation of uncooked pork would be equivalent to an average of one outbreak per 1,227 years."

But New Zealand Pork - which represents 360 farmers who produce 46,000 tonnes of pork a year - has said that if fresh cuts are imported, PRRS will enter New Zealand within three to five years. It is worried that pork offcuts could end up in food scraps fed to pigs, such the thousands of "backyard pigs" kept outside mainstream farming.